Preston — Now that school officials have decided to retain local school bus service, school administrators are recommending a long-range plan to replace the town's aging school bus fleet at a preliminary projected cost of $1.8 million.

Superintendent John Welch and school and town Finance Director John Spang presented various scenarios for replacing school buses — with a future goal of having no buses older than 11 years and with an average age of 5.5 years — to the Board of Education Transportation Subcommittee on Wednesday.

Currently the town has 14 large 65-passenger school buses, with the three oldest buses, model years 1999, 2000 and 2001, slated to be replaced in the 2016-17 fiscal year with $275,000 already bonded by the town.

The remaining 11 large buses all are model year 2006, and the town also owns a 2005 wheelchair lift van and a 10-passenger van, and leases three other seven-passenger vans.

All 11 of the 2006 buses and the wheelchair lift van would be replaced over a five-year period starting in the 2017-18 fiscal year at a preliminary projected cost of $1.187 million, according to replacement schedule spreadsheets presented Wednesday.

Spang presented proposals either to bond the $1.18 million in 2017-18 to purchase 11 new buses and the van gradually over the following four years, or to borrow the necessary funds in each of the successive years to cover the cost.

Spang said the town should avoid a repeat of the bulk purchase made in 2005, which left the town with a large fleet of aged buses with mileages ranging from 143,000 to 205,000 miles.

Welch said he expected the town's existing buses have little to no resale value.

Transportation subcommittee Chairman Charles Raymond said the board should discuss the replacement schedule with the Board of Finance.

He said the proposed replacement plan might be “a little aggressive” but agreed the town should avoid a bulk purchase in one year.

The committee voted unanimously to recommend the full Board of Education accept the replacement strategy and present it to the Board of Finance.

Welch said school officials will try to refine the estimated cost of $90,000 per bus and present revised figures to the Board of Education in May.

The new proposed replacement schedule calls for replacing the three oldest buses in the 2016-17 fiscal year, with the $275,000 already bonded.

The next year, with new funding, four buses would be purchased, followed by three buses in each of the next two years.

More new funding would be needed to replace two buses in 2021-22 and the final older existing bus in 2022-23 fiscal year.

That would be followed by four years of not needing to purchase new buses, before the replacement policy would kick in again, Spang said.

c.bessette@theday.com